Before asking "Is this too hot?"

Hi all...new to this Forum...
Anyhow...the only Temps I can see on my Custom Built System are the Ambient / Core Temps within my NVidea Control Panel.

Generally the Core Temp for the GPU is around 49 degrees Celcius (no gaming) and up to 60 degrees celcius (intense part of HL2)....their is also waht they call the Ambient Temp which varies between 36 to 45 degrees celcius in the same above conditions.

I'm assuming these Temps are for my Vid Card and not what I'm reading in Posts as "Case Temps" and Ambient Processor Temps" ??

Is thier some software around which will show my Processor Temp?
Anyone see anything abnormal with the Temps I've given?

I'm asking as I have had a couple of "freezes" while playing HL2...I know their are many issues with this game but temperature does make me wonder.
Also, I had my 6800 GT OC to 401 Mhz / 1.1 Ghz from the stock 350 Mhz / 1.0 Ghz and the temp really didn't show much of a rise? Nor did I really seem to notice much difference in game play, so I've elected to run it not Overclocked.

Hi all...new to this Forum...
Anyhow...the only Temps I can see on my Custom Built System are the Ambient / Core Temps within my NVidea Control Panel.

Generally the Core Temp for the GPU is around 49 degrees Celcius (no gaming) and up to 60 degrees celcius (intense part of HL2)....their is also waht they call the Ambient Temp which varies between 36 to 45 degrees celcius in the same above conditions.

I'm assuming these Temps are for my Vid Card and not what I'm reading in Posts as "Case Temps" and Ambient Processor Temps" ??

Is thier some software around which will show my Processor Temp?
Anyone see anything abnormal with the Temps I've given?

I'm asking as I have had a couple of "freezes" while playing HL2...I know their are many issues with this game but temperature does make me wonder.
Also, I had my 6800 GT OC to 401 Mhz / 1.1 Ghz from the stock 350 Mhz / 1.0 Ghz and the temp really didn't show much of a rise? Nor did I really seem to notice much difference in game play, so I've elected to run it not Overclocked.

Any comments on my Post would be much appreciated.

Cheers
B

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Nice rig

I think this program called sisoft sandra i think it will help you out.

I will look for another program to moitor vid card temps- right now im too tired lol.

Try dropping the quality of the game a little bit - for example drop the eye candy down a tad - tun off anti aliasing or some visual options within the game- set the res to 1024x768 - it may help ease the load off the gpu and cpu.

Hey thinks for the info........I presently have been running all of my games...Doom3, HL2 & recently Far Cry with the Highest settings. However, I do keep AA & AF at "none" and vertical sync "on". If I turn off Vertical Sync I see a lot of tearing on the screen, I take it this is because my refresh rate on my LCD monitor is 75 Hz and the info is coming way to fast from my GPU for the final product.....I think?

Anyhow......I have been playing with the resolution set at 1280 x 1024, so perhaps bumping it down will help....

Yes it is a pretty cool rig.....one of the first things I noticed was the loading time to my desk top when first starting up....from pushin g the power button to clicking on applications is around 20 seconds.......not like my dinosaurs at work!!

In 2 months I have had HL2 do a crash twice now......not a huge deal as it is a computer, but curious as to why. Tried bumping my paging file to 1.5x my Memeory as Microsoft recommends.....had it around 512 MB before....now its at 1500 MB....we'll see if that makes a difference.

While it's a point much debated, the basics are very simple.
Temps for a well cooled box and it's cpu should be +10 - 15 deg C over whatever the ambient air temp is, while the board should be between 5-10 deg C.
All systems should run cool with a better HSF or faster fan and or more case fans, unfortunately more fans generally means more noise, to avoid that use 92mm fans, and while the temp can saftely go to 50 deg (my personal maximum) and above it's best to keep it all cool.
Good quality cases and HSF's are worth the extra cash.
Using the Lian case allows placing the drives at an angle to divert the air flow onto the board, sure they are $ exe but they are a very good case.
Always add a blowhole in every case you own, temps will drop dramatically and the fan needs to be only a quiet 15-20 cfm.
Adding another fan in the rear will show that the bottom fan needs to be slightly faster than the top one by at least 10 cfm, (testing done for you) courtesy of much testing with a Digi-Doc 5.
Basics don't change between different boxes and systems, there should never be a question asked like (is my cpu too hot) when the simple stuff is done "first" the rest is easy.
My 3200 64bit cpu system runs at 36 deg C, overclocking may lift that depending on how much of an O/C, while my duals do by their nature run slightly warmer, 40 deg C would be my temp limit at 100% on any MP dual cpu based system in a well cooled case, mine are only MP 2400's.
Intels will always run cooler, my older soc 370 1.4g P3 Tualtins / S230T Tyans run at 34 deg no problem with tiny stock Intel HSF's
The best purchase one can buy is an air conditioner, so all temps I quote derive from a room temp of a comfortable 25 deg C, as your room temp rises so will your cpu and board, all assuming the box is well cooled to start with.
It really is easy to figure what you should expect to have.

Hello dudes, new freshman on the board
This quite intensive discussion brings me to the probs I recently had myself.
Since short I run a Gigabyte GA-VT600-1364 MoBo with 512Mb & AMD Athlon XP 3000+, too low on mem I know 1Gb would be a large improvement here.
Installed it in a simple tower case with the stock cooling, that came with the set.
When I first converted to the new board I had my XP home SP2 and my "old" soft installed.
After having everything installed without any probs, had a few sudden shutdowns, but after years of experience with the microsoft productline who wonders about that. ;-)
Anyway, when it finally came down to working with it, it wouldn't last more then 10min before a sudden shutdown appeared with several different error-messages telling me what was wrong.
Went over the log of my installation and couldn't find anything that could make this happen.
Finally, I installed MBM5 and I found out that overheating was what caused my trouble, when the MoBo reached 45°C, CPU was around 65°C then, the bloody thing collapsed or went it into thermal protection and restarted the system.
First I tried working with the case open, helped a bit, let's say a minute or maybe 2.
Then I removed the power-unit cause it was sitting close to the CPU-unit and it's airstream went into its direction, again I gained a few minutes of "joy".
Then I thought I found the ultimate solution and mounted a P1 CPUcoolingfan on the VIA KT600-chip's alu cooler, again I gained more pleasure-time this time an ashtonishing 5min.
Sick and tired of this, I went up the addic, dug up my 15" deskfan, which I use during summer to cool of my room and me, pointed it on the MoBo switched it on on Level3 & "Hurraaay" everything stays cool and the system runs stable for hours & days.
The Mobo stays at a "cool" 30 to 35°C and CPU runs within a respectable 40 to 50°C.
Wanting to know why stock cooling didn't do it's job, I went investigating one another.
I mean don't those designers/engineers know how to design an adequate stock-cooling?
Yes, they do but...
I found out that XP SP2 blows the usage of your CPU to it's max capacity, between 94 & 100% of usage, when you start-up or run anything, this causes CPU to heat fast, the fact that CPU temp stayed in range (max @ collapse was 65°C) and that the MoBo heated up to over 45°C, which was the sign for it to go into siesta-mode, prooves that the stock CPU-cooling is effective but it "blows" all it's heat over the board and that one can't have it.
So, modding of my case is an essence, which will turn out in buying a new case that I will be modding further, and doesn't scare me of, placing extra fans neither.
The sound is ennoying, but, hey, nothing will beat the level of db's produced by my deskfan.
The question I ask myself:

Ea$y said:

I dont think there are many negative aspects in refrence to leaving the side of your case off except maybe a dust buildup. If you are doin maintenance to the case its ok to leave it off for a while but dust and dirt particles in the air will cling to components. Motherboards especially. Excessive dust could possibly cause a short on the board.

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What about all the extra fanning then?
I mean for an electronic device that has a reputation, and I know, saw too many of them inside, for being the next best vacuumcleaner besides swedish Nillfisk.
The placing of extra fans won't improve on how-to keep your Mobo clean.
Installing airfilters? Wont I disturb and reduce the airstream of the air taken in too much?
Do I place two fans to make sure I overcome that reducing factor?
Placing an extra fan for exhaust, to take the "hot" air out because the airsytream itself isn't strong enough anymore to blow it's way through and out the case?
In the end, I end up with more fans than the systems power-unit can handle.
I can also build the entire thing into an old still-working fridge and have my temp and no dust too.
I'm joking here, but what are the parameters for "good judgement" in this.

Little comment on some previous posts here::

Stormbringer said:

The most common cause of this fluctuation is shutting off the machine. When you shut down, all the components that get hot tend to cool off(I know its hard to believe but its true) This is usually a big factor in thermal failures.

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This is indeed true, but the power switch is still the one-and-only most effective systemprotecting firewall during abscense.
Also, when shutting down, fans stop running too, so the hot-components will go to a temp peak before they will start cooling down and this is where a lot of damage occurs.
Further on, indeed, hot elements that cool down are subject to fysical damage, for example cracks.
Best thing here would be, like in cars, that fans keep running until the system's temp drops below normal temp-range.

Bushwhacker said:

MMM. that confuse me, StormBringer... Yes, it is safe if you re running a system under 70c, but PC MODDER magazine (Mad Modder wrote the article) AMD can running up to 95c?
I am curious, I know anything above 70c is not safe but why AMD told the consumer that some of AMD can capable to run in 95c.

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Ever heard of warranty failsafe?
CPU's are designed to be able to sustain these high temps not for actual working in this region but for making sure the CPU doesn't get burned by anything that goes wrong.
Normally, Mobo's switch off when CPU's reach 80°C and when everything is cooled down you still have working gear left.
Otherwise, half of us would be in stores at least twice a week for new CPU's, not mentioning the law-suits they would have to face.
Greetz,
ßeetlejuice

Not sure how many fans, and where they are blowing in your case. I found that airflow is quite an important aspect in the cooling of the PC, so you might want to just reorganize your casing fans (or maybe add more).

I'm also having some heating problems of my own, but its not causing too much problem. My HDDs are basically overheating a little, causing a little slowdown. I don't have enough 5.25' bays to add some of those great HDD cooling items, and I don't want to put some of those HDD coolers as they will cause the bay below unoccupiable. I've already stuck some mini heatsinks on the sides of the HDD (or the sides of whats carrying the HDD) and it seems to work a little, but not good enough.

i have a question my pc has 5 fans and my cpu is a P4 3.0ghz.
my fans r 1 in the front blowing in 1 in the back blowing out 1 on top blowing out and 2 on the same side blowing out and i was wondering if i should change the way the top one and side ones r blowing for maximum air flow
thanks

I have 2 sticks of crucial ballistx 4200
#1 is 82 farenheight #2 is 104 right now, and thats about average.
Is the difference a big deal?
I have a digital doc 5+
the video card is always over 100
ge force 6800 ultra

but now my GPU memory runs much warmer.. now idling at 39 >_< right now.. its at 41C n im jus surfing.. MSN-ing n music-ing.. nothign heavy on vid card lol its much hotter than my CPU. n that has never happened b4 :hotbounce

its almost like.. its set to say to be 6C hotter than the GPU.. wut might have i done wrong?

well after reading all this it seems i am lucky my cpu (P4 2.8) is idleing at 28C (just barely over clocked) and my system temp is at 34C with two case fans, one in one out.

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wow... that's nice and cool ...

What case do you have? Aluminum? Brand?

Too lazy to read this thread again, I may have already posted this but my P4 2.6c (no overclocking) idles at about 34-38C and case is always way hotter at about 40-45C. Case is steel with just one exhaust fan...no clue how/where to mount any intake fans...

my case is just some cheap case i found online. i have no idea what brand it is. im not even sure if its alum or steal. but my cpu cooler is one of those cooler master aero fans (alum.). put an intake on the front or side. the side will help a lot with mobo temps.
for some reason my temps went up. idk why cuz i didnt change anything but now the cpu is at around 32-35 and so is the case. another thing that is strange is when i turn down the cpu fan the temps seem to go down buy a few degrees.

EDIT now its running at 2.99 GHz and it idles at 23C! haha i love it and running UT2004 it gets up to about 36-37 all with the fan at lowest possible setting.

Everyone seems to be obssesed by keeping the computer cool, and yes of course this is a good thing, but the question I would like to know is can a computer run to cold? For example, my mates pc (athlon 64, 1gb memory not sure of the other specs, but I know he uses a water cooler for his processor and graphics card cooling (home built)) ,runs at nothing more than 2 celcius under load and -4c not under load. IS this too cold? Can you have problems running too cold as well as too hot? Would like to hear feedback. Thank you.

DAMN that guys comp is like a fridge!! but i don't think u can make a computer too cold, he might have to worry that his water cooler isn't icing up though lol. as long as it's a closed circuit and it's not getting any water what's so ever on any parts it doesn't matter how cold is stays i'll ask my comp tech teacher monday and see what he thinks.

Thanx for the quick reply guys! Yes it certainly is a nice cold PC!! Mine is running at about 55c under load and about 48 not under load. I have an amd sempron 2600+ (socket A) running windows ME with 512mb ram. I thought that 55c would be a little to hot, but readig here I am glad to see that it is an ok working temperature, would like to try and get it down a bit though! Thanx again!!

Well, actually there is such a thing as too low a temperature on a number of levels.
Too low a temperature in relation to room temperature and humidity will cause condensation (rain) on the cooled surfaces if they get cool enough. Its the same thing you get on the windows of your house in fall / winter .... warm damp air contacts cold window, air cools and drops the excess water onto the window surface. This is not something "GOOD" for the inside of a PC.
Kick the temperature down a notch further, like below 0C and you get frost build up, not as much of a problem until the frost melts and drips on your electronics. I have actually seen this happen to the backside of peltier cooled CPUs in the past.

Worst case scenario is running the CPU below the manufacturers recommended temperature - and I doubt anybody but the most rabid cooler will have this problem. Well those and a few I know who tried keeping their server outside in -40C weather (note: that’s a bad idea unless you generate enough internal heat to keep within the operating specs of all the components)